Losing All Your Memories

By: Catelyn

It’s annoying to
forget what your about to say, right? What if you lost all your memories? Such as, losing everything from your
childhood to what happened last night. This is not just memory loss. This is
seven long and drawn out stages. This is Alzheimer’s. This is losing all your memories.

The Seven Scary Stages

What are the Seven Stages?

The seven stages are
step by step frames that an Alzheimer’s patient travels through as the disease
progresses. Understanding these frames can help you identify the stages of
Alzheimer’s. For instance, say you were taking care of an Alzheimer’s
individual. If you didn’t understand some behaviors that were going on (such as
wandering off or looking for a misplaced object) you would refer back to the
seven stages to find which stage the victim is going through. Then you might find
that it is normal for Alzheimer’s patients to be going through something as
abnormal as placing objects in strange places.

Stage 1 and 2

Stage 1: No cognitive
impairment: The individual shows no slowed or impaired memory function and no
memory functions will be shown under treatment or examination of a professional.

Stage 2: Very mild
cognitive decline: Subject will show mild signs such as forgetting what most
people would say is normal to forget now and then. Subject will start forgetting objects such as names,
recent events, and location of everyday objects (such as pens, keys,
wristwatch, etc.) This stage isn’t usually visible to people around but to the
subject that is being affected.

Stage 3 and 4

Stage 3: Mild
cognitive decline: This stage is where some individual (not all) can be
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Stage 4: Moderate cognitive decline: This stage is where under a careful
examination of a medical professional (doctor) the subject shows clear signs of
some or all of the following:

·
Impaired memory of recent activities

·
Impaired ability of creative or challenging
thinking (such as counting backwards from 100 by 7’s)

·
Impaired ability to plan ahead of time

·
Memory loss of personal history or experiences

·
A subdued state of mind in difficult situations

Stages 5 and 6

Stage 5: Moderately
severe cognitive decline: This stage is where individual start to show large
gaps in preforming tasks that includes memory. It’s difficult for the subject
to remember addresses, phone numbers, where the individual went to school, etc.

Stage 6: Severe
cognitive decline: This stage is where
the subjects’ memory starts to worsen. This affects personality and the patient
will require extensive daily care.

Stage 7

Stage 7: Very severe
cognitive decline: Individual will lose the ability to speak and respond to
their environment. Unfortunately, they will also lose the ability to control
their body movement.

Risk Factors

What are Risk Factors?

Risk factors are well
risks that may lead to developing Alzheimer’s. These risks aren’t like “jumping
off a cliff and see if you can stay alive” risks. These risks are actually not
the victims fault, a risk for Alzheimer’s can become out of your control. It is
not your fault, it is just part of your genetic makeup, and you can’t change
that.

Genetics

Most of all
Alzheimer’s cases are late-onset, but some families, it is a gene called
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) which appears to be a risk factor. There is more than
one form of this gene, ApoE2, ApoE3 and ApoE4. Sadly, one in four Americans has
the gene ApoE4, but thankfully one in twenty has ApoE2. While ApoE4 increases the risk of developing
Alzheimer’s, Apo2 protects against Alzheimer’s, but it is not a risk factor.

Age

The single greatest
risk factor of the development of Alzheimer’s is age. While a Kindergartener
doesn’t even know what Alzheimer’s is, his own Grandmother could be developing
it. 5% of Americans between the ages of
sixty-five and seventy-four, and about half of those eighty-five and older,
were estimated to have Alzheimer’s.

Familial Alzheimer’s
disease (FAD), which is a rare form of the disease, develops before age sixty-five
and could begin to develop in people as young as thirty-five. This is caused by
one of the three gene mutation on chromosomes 1, 14, and 2.

Extra

Research suggests
that the higher your education is your risk of developing Alzheimer’s is lower,
that being so, people who have lower education are at a higher risk of
developing Alzheimer’s. People who are overweight are at a higher risk too.

Potential Contributing Factors

These are risk
factors that are a little different. These are diseases that might be linked to
Alzheimer’s.

Type 2 Diabetes:
Sorry to say but this disease might lead to Alzheimer’s. Type 2 Diabetes
doesn’t covert blood sugar into energy. This results higher levels of insulin
which may hurt the brain and lead to the progression of Alzheimer’s.

Cardiovascular
Disease: Increasing ones risk in developing Alzheimer’s may be having diseases
associated with heart disease and stroke. The high blood pressure may damage
blood vessels in the brain, impairing memory functions.

Oxidative Damage:
These molecules seek being stable by damaging other molecules, which can hurt
cells and may contribute the Alzheimer’s disease.

What causes Alzheimer’s?

The Answers

Scientists still
don’t fully understand what causes Alzheimer’s but they are definitely zeroing
in on the answers. If we get to the point where scientists understand the
causes, it should lead to more targeted treatments and ways to prevent the
disease. Right now we know that there is probably not one single cause. Some
doctors say that it is genetics while others say it is lifestyle (some say
both). Scientists believe that genetic mutation plays a role in the development
of Alzheimer’s, but there is still no cure or way to prevent Alzheimer’s from
happening (yet). More than one gene can cause Alzheimer’s, but,
the question is what genes and how do we prevent them?

Theories

Boyd Haley, who is head of the
chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, is an expert on mercury
toxicity and stated that amalgams release toxic mercury into the mouth; if
mercury can get into the brain, it can cause plaques and tangles. One person
who agrees to Boyd’s theory is Terry Pratchett who said he believes that the
old fillings in his teeth caused his disease.

Suspicions of
aluminum could be linked to Alzheimer’s started during the 1960’s when
scientists found injections of aluminum compounds into rabbits, which caused
tangle like formations in the rabbit’s nerve cells. But, then research failed
to find any difference of aluminum compounds between an Alzheimer’s brain and a
healthy brain.

Symptoms

Early signs

Early signs of
Alzheimer’s may result in the following:

·
Forgetting time and place such as what year it
is and getting lost on familiar streets

·
Problems using language may be a sign. Although
it is normal to forget words, people with Alzheimer’s may become hard to
understand and may substitute unusual words or phrases for forgotten ones

·
Loss of good judgment (e.g. pajamas worn outside
in the winter)

·
Problems with abstract thinking such as
forgetting the meaning of numbers and what to do with them

·
Misplacing things

·
Rapid mood swings such as going from apparent
calm to crying or being unexplainably angry at times may also be warning signs

·
Signs of depression may also mean the victim is
starting the process of developing Alzheimer’s

·
Personality changes may be very sudden and
dramatic

·
It may be difficult for the victim to perform
tasks that may seem familiar such as making a meal or brushing your teeth

·
The memory loss may affect a job skill, such as
becoming so confused that you cannot perform their job

Dementia

The
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of age-related form of dementia.
Don’t let Alzheimer’s take you over. If experiencing any of these symptoms,
please find help now. Remember to take care of your brain, don’t do drugs or
drink alcohol. Treat your brain and body correctly. Although some of the risk
factors are out of your control, you can decrease your chance of getting
Alzheimer’s by controlling your diet, and exercising your brain and body. Just remember, if you don’t, you could lose all your memories.